Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference:	EP/C006895/1
Title:	Our Planet Our Future
Principal Investigator:	Hull, Professor A
Other Investigators:	Grant, Dr L Bultitude, Dr K
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:	Engineering and Technology Board Institute of Physics
Department:	Built Environment
Organisation:	University of the West of England
Scheme:	PPE PreFEC
Starts:	10 December 2004	Ends:	09 March 2006	Value (£):	17,866
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:	Sustainable Energy Networks
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:	No relevance to Underpinning Sectors
Related Grants:
Panel History:
Summary on Grant Application Form
Sustainability is recognised as an important topic in the UK secondary school curriculum, see http://www.nc.uk.net/esd/gq1.htm. However, in many ways it has not made a significant impact upon the science curriculum. Part of the reason for this is a difficulty in obtaining suitable resources and teaching support materials. This project aims to address this problem by developing an information resource on key Sustainability topics that are relevant and of interest to secondary school students, and subsequently disseminating that resource as widely as possible within the UK.The research will involve identifying eight key topics under the broad heading of Sustainability, and reviewing the materials currently available to the public, as well as the scientific, political, ethical and personal issues raised by those topics. Research will identify which issues are of greatest relevance and interest to the target audience (11-16 year olds) and provide a solid scientific basis for public engagement activities. Two key forms of dissemination are envisaged: a UK-wide lecture tour, and the production of 5,000 CDs to be distributed to schools around the country.Recent investigations into the waning interest of young people in studying science have concluded that highlighting key ethical and philosophical issues related to the topic rather than merely quoting facts and figures stimulates student interest and encourages further curiosity. In particular, the opportunity to form and express their own opinions on a topic appears to be highly successful. The project team has incorporated these findings into the current project by including the use of a Keypad Standard Reply (KSR) system during the lecture an electronic 'voting' pad distributed to each member of the audience, from which attitudes and opinions may be gathered and displayed in real time. The collation and analysis of UK-wide attitudinal data relating to young people's opinions on Sustainability-related issues, in this way, will enable instantaneous evaluation to be performed at the end of each lecture to give a fast summary of responses and also a much faster data analysis which may be fed back into teaching and policy channels. Student engagement will be further developed through an inventive style of lecture: there will be two presenters on stage, and the audience will be asked to vote on which of the eight Sustainability topics are of most interest to them. Approximately four topics will be covered per lecture, with stimulating educational demonstrations and issues-related investigations included for each one. Transfer of the ownership of the lecture content from the speakers to the audience is another very effective way of ensuring student interest and participation.The Institute of Physics (IoP) is keen to act as key coordinators of the dissemination strategy since they have expert experience in reaching the target audience through their annual Schools Lecture, which has audiences of up to 10,000 students, using the lecture to extend and enrich the existing school syllabus. During 2005, the IoP is co-ordinating a major campaign to raise the awareness of physics within the wider community to link with the United Nations celebration of the International Year of Physics , known within the UK as Einstein Year . The 2005 Schools Lecture will be a significant element in this campaign and so the intention is to produce a bigger and better lecture reaching more young people. As part of this campaign they have agreed to extend the normal Schools Lecture tour by seeking new partners to assist in maximising its impact on the target audiences. The Engineering and Technology Board (etb) have agreed to sponsor the campaign again in 2005, to coincide with their 2004/05 theme of Sustainable Futures.
Key Findings
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Potential use in non-academic contexts
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Impacts
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Organisation Website:	http://www.uwe.ac.uk